Playing with the Fove eye tracking VR headset

I’ve been working on prototype games with the Vive (in UE4) but really wanted this primarily to play with its unique feature: real eye tracking. It has cameras that watch your eyes and figure out where you’re looking – and applications can act on this information.No, this isn’t from Resident Evil 7… it’s how it watches you watch. Yes, it’s creepy.

Currently there is only one demo on the Fove website to try out – I expect more will be added soon – hopefully they will show off foveating rendering and depth of field based on gaze. I want to see if it’s all quick enough to “feel right” or not. I guess we could always write our own tests as well… maybe later.

This is the sample app. That little green and red ball? That’s where your left and right eyes are currently looking.

My impressions

I had some trouble getting it going, but after a few reboots, trying different usb ports, and removing my second monitor it kicked into gear

Fove is currently marketing this to “developers, creators, researchers” and I agree that it isn’t ready for the general consumer

It’s fiddly. If your headset shifts on your head AT ALL since you’ve calibrated the eye tracking, it will be way off. I had the best results if I tried not to move my head at all

Sadly, they don’t support Valve’s lighthouse tracking (this was something they were talking about earlier) and it comes with a single infrared camera that tracks points on the helmet. I felt it didn’t track rotation/position as well and accurately as Vive or Oculus Rift does

It really does work! I could totally write an eye controlled VR web browser or whatever, that rocks

Conclusion

It’s functional and is very useful to experiment with eye tracking VR technology early. Eye tracking will probably be a standard feature in all the VR headsets soon enough.